Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information his Department holds on the number of times that the Children's Commissioner has visited hotels which are accommodating unaccompanied asylum seeking children.
Answered by Will Quince
As an executive non-departmental public body, the department does not hold the requested information regarding specific visits by the Children’s Commissioner.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2022 to Question 140453 on Children: Care Homes, how many complaints were received by Ofsted for each children’s home provider, not national figures, in England in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.
Answered by Will Quince
This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the hon. Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2022 to Question 140453 on Children: Care Homes, if she will publish all incident notifications received by Ofsted for incidents of (a) a missing child, (b) emergency services called and (c) illness for each children’s home provider, not overall national figures, in 2020-21 in England.
Answered by Will Quince
This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the hon. Member and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish all incident notifications received by Ofsted for incidents of (a) a missing child, (b) emergency services called and (c) illness for each children’s home provider in 2020-2021 in England.
Answered by Will Quince
This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the hon. Member for South Shields and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many complaints were received by Ofsted for each children’s home providers in England in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.
Answered by Will Quince
This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman. I have asked her to write to the hon. Member for South Shields and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made on the effectiveness of fast-track social work programmes.
Answered by Will Quince
Investing in the social workers of the future is essential to building a profession that is best able to protect and care for vulnerable children and families.
The Frontline and Step Up to Social Work fast-track programmes demonstrate clear value for money and effectiveness in supporting the government’s commitment to improving the recruitment and retention of social workers. Both programmes account for an increasing proportion of postgraduate social work enrolments. Investment in fast-track social work programmes, alongside university social work education, supports local authority social worker recruitment by providing top quality training to candidates who may not have previously considered social work as a career.
An evaluation of Frontline, conducted by Cardiff University and published in March 2016, found Frontline participants to be highly skilled in their practice quality. The report is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/frontline-pilot-independent-evaluation.
A further study, undertaken by Cardiff University to track the retention and progression of Frontline and Step Up to Social Work graduates, found no evidence that attrition rates for fast-track trained social workers at 18 months after qualification are higher than they are for social workers trained via mainstream programmes. The report also found that social workers trained by fast-track programmes demonstrate good progression and high job satisfaction. The final report was published in December 2021 and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-work-fast-track-programmes-tracking-study.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the value for money of fast-track social work programmes.
Answered by Will Quince
Investing in the social workers of the future is essential to building a profession that is best able to protect and care for vulnerable children and families.
The Frontline and Step Up to Social Work fast-track programmes demonstrate clear value for money and effectiveness in supporting the government’s commitment to improving the recruitment and retention of social workers. Both programmes account for an increasing proportion of postgraduate social work enrolments. Investment in fast-track social work programmes, alongside university social work education, supports local authority social worker recruitment by providing top quality training to candidates who may not have previously considered social work as a career.
An evaluation of Frontline, conducted by Cardiff University and published in March 2016, found Frontline participants to be highly skilled in their practice quality. The report is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/frontline-pilot-independent-evaluation.
A further study, undertaken by Cardiff University to track the retention and progression of Frontline and Step Up to Social Work graduates, found no evidence that attrition rates for fast-track trained social workers at 18 months after qualification are higher than they are for social workers trained via mainstream programmes. The report also found that social workers trained by fast-track programmes demonstrate good progression and high job satisfaction. The final report was published in December 2021 and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-work-fast-track-programmes-tracking-study.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many serious incident notifications were made to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel in respect of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in each month from 1 July 2021 to 31 January 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
Serious incident data held by the department does not currently indicate whether an incident relates to an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child. However, the department is in the process of making changes to the notification system which will include whether a serious incident relates to an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the abolition of the national assessment and accreditation system for children’s social workers, whether his Department plans to consult (a) representatives of the social work profession and (b) other relevant stakeholders on the long-term future of post-qualification social work training and career development.
Answered by Will Quince
The department invests over £50 million each year on recruiting and developing child and family social workers to ensure that the workforce has the capacity, skills and knowledge to support and protect vulnerable children.
The decision to end the current delivery model of the national assessment and accreditation system in March 2022 has been informed by feedback from social workers, local authorities and other stakeholders, as well as learning from other professions that have moved to remote assessment during the COVID-19 outbreak.
We remain committed to assessment and accreditation as a key element of continuing improvements in children’s social care, and we will continue to engage and collaborate with the sector and other stakeholders as we develop the long-term future of post-qualification training and development for child and family social workers.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of Frontline on (a) retention and (b) vacancy rates in children’s social work.
Answered by Will Quince
The government is committed to improving the recruitment and retention of social workers to ensure local authorities are best able to protect and care for vulnerable children and families.
Frontline trains around 450 social workers each year. Social workers trained by the Frontline programme have made a contribution towards retention which is comparable to those who train through other routes. A study undertaken by Cardiff University to track the retention and progression of Frontline and Step Up to Social Work graduates found “no evidence that attrition rates for fast-track-trained social workers at 18 months after qualification are higher than they are for social workers trained via mainstream programmes”. The final report was published in December 2021 and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-work-fast-track-programmes-tracking-study.